The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-12

Oil ulltdiliilS dtCiilNNS, lllt lfCb Nllab
in the month of May, or June, or Septem-
ber, or December, 1887, we made the bliss
full mistake of supposing that we were en-
tertaining weak men like ourselves, when
10! they showed their pinions before they
left, and we found out that they were angels
unawares.
Another reward comes in the good wishes
and prayers of our guests do not think
ones house ever gets over having had good
man or woman abide there. George White
field used to scratch on the window of the
room where he was entertained passage of
Scripture, and in one case, after he left, the
whole household was converted by the read
ing of that passage on the window pane.
The woman of Shunem furnished little
room over the wall for Elisha, and all the
ages have heard the glorious consequences.
On cold, stormy, winter night, my father
entertained Trueman Osborne, the evange-
list, and through all eternity | will thank
God that Trueman Osborne stopped at our
house. How many of our guests have
brought to us coincidence, and sympathy and
help! There is legend told of st. Sehald,
that in his christian rounds he
used to stop for entertainment at
the house of poor cartwright. Coming
there one day, he found the cartwright and
his family freezing for the lack of any fuel.
st. Sebald ordered the man to go out and
break the iciclcs from the side of the house
and bring them in, and the icicles were
brought into the house and thrown on the
hearth, and they began to blaze immo-
diately, and the freezing family gathered
around and were warmed by them. That
was legend but how often have our guests
come in to gather up the cold, freezing sor-
rows of our life, kindling them into, illumi-
nation, and warmth, and good cheer He
who opens his house to Christian hospitality,
turns those who are strangers into friends.
Years will go by, and there will be great
changes in you, and there will be great
changes in them. Some day you will be
sitting in Loneliness, watching. bereave-
ment and you will get letter in strange
handwriting, and you will look at
the post office mark, and say: "Why,
don't know anybody living in
that city;" and you will break the envelope,
and there you will read the story of thanks
for your Christian generosity long years
before, and how they have heard afar off of
your trouble. And the letter will be SO full
of kindly "reminiscences and Christian con-
dolence, it will be plaster large enough to
cover up all the deep gashes of your soul.
When we take people into our houses as
Christian guests, we take them into our
sympathies forever. In bort, Holland, a
soldier with a sword at his side stopped at a
house, desiring lodging and shelter. The
woman of the house at first refused admit
tance, saying that the men of the house
were not at home; but when he showed his
credentials that he had been honorably dis
charged from the army, he was admitted
and tarried during the night. In the night
time there was knocking at the front door,
and two ruffians broke in to de
spoil that household. No sooner had they
come over the door sill than the armed
guest, who had primed his piece and charged
it with slugs, met them, and telling the
woman to stand back, am happy TO say,
dropped the two assaulting desperadoes
dead at his feet. Well, now there are no
bandits prowling around to destroy our
houses; but how often it is that we find
those that have been our guests become our
defenders. We gave them shelter first, and
then afterward in the great conflicts OF life
they fought for our reputation; they fought
for our property; they fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Chris
tian hospitality is in the assurance that we
shall have hospitality shown to US and to
ours. In the upturnings of this life, who
knows in what city or what land we may be
thrown and how much we may need an
open door2 There may come no such crisis
to us, but our children may be thrown into
some such strait. He who is in Christian
manner hospitable, has free pass through
I'LL 1uTlbt5n1lOIil. IL may 10 you WIN
have been dead fifty years before any such
stress shall come upon one Of your descend
ants; but do you not suppose that God can
remember fifty yearsl and the knuckle of
the grandchild will be heard against the
door of some stranger, and that door will
open; and it will be talked over in heaven,
and it will be said: THAT mans grand
father, fifty years ago, gave shelter to a
stranger, and now strangers door Is open
for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining and
being entertained. they take piece of lead
and cut it in two, and the host takes one
half of the piece of lead and the guest takes
the other half as they part. These two
pieces of lead are handed down from gener-
alton TO generation, and from family to
family: and after a while, perhaps one OF
the families in want or in trouble go out
with this one piece of lead and find the other
family with the corresponding piece OF
lead, and no sooner is the tally completed
than the old hospitality is aroused, and
eternal friendship pledged. So the memory
of Christian hospitality will go down from
generation to generation, and from family
to family, and the tally will never be lost,
neither in this world nor the world to come.
Mark this: The day will come when we
will all be turned out-of-doors, without any
xception--bare-footed bare-head, no water
in the canteen, no bread in the haversack,
and we will go in that way into the future
world. And ! wonder IL eternal hospi-
tality will open before us, and If we will
be received into everlasting habitationsl
Francis Frescobald was a rich Italian, and
he was very merciful and very hospitable.
One day, an Englislman by the name Of
Thomas Cromwell appeared at his door ask
ing for shelter and aims, which were cheer
fully rendered. Frescobald afterward lost
all his property, became very poor, and
wandered up into England; and one day he
saw procession passing, and lol ID was the
Lord Chancellor Of England; and 10 ! the
Lord Chancellor Of England was Thomas
Cromwell, the very man whom he had once
befriended down in Italy. The Lord Chan
cellor, at the first glance of Frescobald,
recognized him, and dismounted from
his carriage, threw his arms around
him, and embraced him, paid his
said: "Here are ten pieces of money TO pay
ten pieces of money to provide for the horse
YOU loaned me, and here are four bags in
each OF which are four hundred ducats.
Take them and be we'll" So it will be at
last with us II we entertain Christ in the
person of his disciples in this world, when
we pass up into the next country, we will
meet Christ in regal procession, and He
will pour ali the wealth of heaven into our
lap, and opon before US everlasting hospi-
talities And how tame are the richest
entertainments we can give on earth com
pared with the regal munilicence which
Christ will display before our souls in
heaven j was reading the account which
Thomas Fuller gives of the enter